I am generally unwilling to return to analog-stick, single-digit-framerate console FPS games, so caveat that I played the source port on PC here. I imagine the score would be like half this if I'd replayed on the N64.

That said, the core design principles here are flawless. Contemporary players might complain about vague objectives, but honestly nothing is that complicated or vague. Importantly, the objectives are varied and the nonlinearity helps in contrast to CoD's dull, arbitrary "Hold X to place C4" nonsense. I do agree that it's brutal in combination with the lack of checkpoints, though. Still, there is some charm in optimizing your path through a level and finally perfecting it. It's also short as hell; I beat the entire thing on the hardest difficulty in a couple of hours.

Ultimately deserves its place in the pantheon. Assessing in retrospect, you have to factor in the context that Duke Nukem 3d and Quake had just come out the year before. The notion of a slower-paced tactical FPS just did not exist yet. It was the first majorly influential game to incorporate aiming for enemy weakpoints and a sniper rifle! Wild.